San Diego police raid strip club, stir national debate

An SDPD raid at Cheetahs strip club in Kearny Mesa has raised questions in The Washington Post and other forums.

About 10 officers swarmed the club Thursday night "with guns and bulletproof vests" and photographed 30 "almost nude" dancers as part of a random vice unit inspection, "interrupting business for a couple of hours," according to a 10 News report posted over the weekend.

"I didn't know whether it was a bank robbery or there was a serial killer loose the way that they had come in like that," manager Rich Buonantony told the TV station.

Katelynn Delorie, a hair dresser by day and a stripper at night, said police "asked us for our licenses and then took down our Social Security, our information and then had us all line up in the back of the dressing rooms and take pictures." The dancer said: "They made me feel like I was a gang member pretty much, and they wanted to document every single one of my tattoos." Surveillance video aired by 10 News shows women lined up and officers taking their information.

San Diego police Lt. Kevin Mayer issued this statement to 10 News:

One of the many responsibilities of the San Diego Police Department’s Vice Unit is to conduct random inspections of strip clubs to ensure dancers are complying with the law and that they have an entertainers permit. In most cases, Vice Unit detectives do not require or request clubs to shut down. Photographs of the entertainers permit and the person in possession of it are taken for investigative purposes.

Buonantony told 10 News he's "happy to work with police but hopes they are more subtle about it next time and respect the dancers." He said "the show of force, the show of power, was incredible.”

The incident sparked an intense conversation in the comments section of the 10 News post with readers divided over whether the police action was warranted. The discussion reached the national stage a few days later when Radley Balko, a blogger with The Washington Post, asked some questions of his own Monday. He wrote:

So this was a regulatory operation. But instead of sending a few bureaucrats to do the paperwork, the city of San Diego thought it appropriate to send a team of gun-toting cops to raid the place (similar to recent masked, militarized SWAT raids on massage parlors). Remember, according to the report, there was no suspicion of criminal activity here. This was a routine inspection. Which raises the question: Are all routine, regulatory inspections of San Diego businesses done with raid teams? Is it just strip clubs? Are strippers known for being dangerous? And if the photos were necessary for record-keeping purposes, why was it necessary to photograph the women while they weren’t wearing clothing?

Reaction on Twitter was negative.

@radleybalko As soon as one of those photos gets leaked to the internet. Everyone of them should launch a civil rights lawsuit.

Holla26: 10 officers vs. 100 or more dancers/patrons. Of course they wear bulletproof vests and of course they have guns. Of course they are going to surround the place so nobody tries to leave. I wonder how many people they catch when they make an appointment? "Show of force" or just being prepared?

taikan: The most scary thing about this article is not reading what the police did (although that's certainly bad enough), but reading the comments of those who think the police did nothing wrong. Do any of them think that the people who wrote the Fourth Amendment would agree with them?

Where have all the flowers gone: The police ego that prefers this approach is not one I want in my community. I want officers who are reluctant to wear fatigues and use rifles and overwhelm female strippers with force. Strippers who have absolutely no clothing to hide a weapon. Can we start over and build a new police force?

261241: Whoever ordered this raid should be STRIPPED of authority.

gatorbite: Or maybe they were investigating something else that is being kept quiet and needed an excuse to get a bunch of cops in. Maybe they are covering because whomever might have been a target wasn't there....

Khartet: if you are familiar with San Diego you would know that it is a human trafficking hub. The raid was probably related to looking for runaways and underage "dancers"

Cubby_Michael: So if it's an operation legal enough that licenses should be checked, why send in the SWAT team? Strikes me as overkill to put it mildly. What next? A SWAT team to go after jaywalkers and those who fail to keep their lawns below a certain level?

Serolf_Divad: Wow, how do get that job... er... what I meant to say was, wow, what an unconscionable violation of these ladies' civil rights.

RobertHerr: Guns and bullet proof vests to check the permits of strippers. Sounds a little excessive to me. These people are so out of control. Let's hope the new Chief gets to weigh in on this one. Oh yea and I am sure the officers taking the pictures were all women right? Disgusting.

HayesJackson: Guns and bullet proof vests, this is like getting mad because your contractor wore a hammer and tool belt on the job site.

DanielSpencer: Everyone working at a strip club must apply for a license through the city via the SDPD Vice Unit. That unit is tasked with undercover and uniformed inspections. Every strip club in the City gets inspected. Every dancer is checked to confirm they have licenses & conform to the license standards. If, as suggested, only 2 detectives enter and do a low key inspection everyone else can then stop any illegal activities, change improper clothing or make a hasty exit out a back door to avoid having being cited for no permit. These inspections have been going on for decades. When applying for the adult entertainer permit the applicant is told they may be inspected....

FulaniYira: As far are I am concerned, they violated those strippers human and civil rights. They didn't produce any paperwork, did not get the consent of the owners before the raid, didn't talk to the owners before the raid. They just came in without probable cause, took down the women's personal identification and social security numbers, so you don't know what those police are using their private information for, but we know it's profiling, and they sexually harassed the women and took photographs without their consent. The owner and the strippers were violated in the worst way imaginable....